Philips sells lighting division at half price

Eindhoven-located Philips sold its lighting division Lumileds for 1.5 billion dollars (1.4 bilion dollars) to American fund Apollo. The price is about half of what Chinese GO Scale Capital was willing to pay last year. 

Rejected previous deal

GO Scale Capital is a consortium which consists of GSR Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, Asia Pacific Resource Development and Nanchang Industrial Group and it was willing to pay 2.9 billion dollars (2.7 billion euro) but the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) blocked the deal because of safety reasons. The Committee did not reveal any additional information, but it probably did not want a supplier to the United States government to become Chinese.

Apollo is its new owner, but it is going to pay considerably less than what Philips had hoped for. “I am satisfied that we have found the right Lumiled owner in Apollo”, CEO Frans van Houten said. Lumileds 2015 turnover reached 2 billion dollars and it employs about 8,800 people in more than 30 countries.